I just got in the new Arris CM3000 Pro gimbal for GoPro cameras. I actually won this in a Facebook contest many thanks to Hobby-Wing! Here are a few photos of the gimbal. As an owner of the CM3000, this one is built much better and has better features for sure. It powered up great and I’ll do a test flight soon. Stay tuned for my full review.

Arris CM3000 Pro Gimbal

Arris CM3000 Pro Gimbal

Arris CM3000 Pro Gimbal

Arris CM3000 Pro Gimbal

Arris CM3000 Pro Gimbal

I’m ready to post a video now of some low light flight testing.  I recalibrated the gimbal in order to fix the issue where it would roll a few degrees one way and make the video look like the original Batman movie from 1967.  It would appear that issue is fixed.

The video settings on the camera are all AUTO, except for the focus which is manual/infinity.  The results are quite remarkable in low light.  The Sony NEX beats the living hell out of a GoPro in low light.

Since October 2013 I’ve been modifying a DJI Phantom quadcopter to try to achieve smooth and high quality aerial video as well as high quality aerial still images.  I believe that I’ve got my Phantom performing the best one could possibly perform, and the video/photos the best I could get out of a GoPro 3 Black.

I found the GoPro to be very limited and the still image quality to really suck.  I also found that despite the custom gains and different propellors, the Phantom gets thrown around in the wind due to its smaller size.  Those factors made me decide I needed a larger and more stable platform so I could carry a larger, higher quality camera than a GoPro.

So I built a large hexacopter.  Since then I’ve been doing the same tweaks to the hexa, trying to get all the little bugs worked out and achieve high quality aerial images.  Then it dawned on me that my camera setup alone weighed more than my entire Phantom setup!  Naturally the next step from there was to strap the Phantom to the bottom of the hexacopter as a small demonstration and different perspective.  I used to worry about adding 20 grams to my Phantom for fear that it would fly poorly and I’d reduce my flight times even more.

From the video below, you can tell that 20 grams doesn’t mean too much now.

My new rig is still in the tweaking stage.  During the build of the new rig, I managed to get my Phantom set to my satisfaction, and there are still situations where the bird will come in handy.